Yet another scandal, this time about gambling, prompts a clean-up of the sport

SUMO boasts 82 kimarite, or techniques, to take down an opponent. But the sport is most notable for pummelling itself. Its reputation has been scorched by scandals, from drug-use to accusations of match-fixing to the bullying to death of a young recruit. But recent revelations about gambling and ties to the yakuza, Japan's mob, are the most serious yet.

On June 28th the Japan Sumo Association (JSA), the governing body, moved to dismiss a top-ranked wrestler, Kotomitsuki, and a “stablemaster”, or coach, Otake, for betting on baseball, which is illegal in Japan because of gambling's links with the yakuza. There followed news of other such cases, and of incidents where wrestlers paid blackmail to yakuza to keep their sins quiet.

Around 70 people in sumo have so far been implicated in gambling on baseball and other things. Unlike in previous scandals, none is a foreigner. And the involvement of stablemasters suggests rot at the top. An independent panel has recommended that 12 wrestlers, almost one-third of the total in the professional ranks, be suspended from a tournament this month in Nagoya. Of the JSA's “elders”, or directors, 11 face suspension, including the chairman and three other members of its executive board. A plethora of sponsors has pulled out. The police are preparing criminal charges. Politicians are clamouring for an overhaul of the powerful, secretive JSA, which initially turned a blind eye to this scandal, as it has to most in the past.

Most national sports suffer scandals. But the respect held by the Japanese for sumo is different. It traces its lineage back nearly two millennia. It was long the sport of the emperor's court. Matches were held at Shinto shrines, whence sumo's elaborate pre-bout rituals descend. Today, wrestlers and stablemasters are held to high standards—and endure opprobrium when they fall short.

The scandal says a lot about modern Japan, a country undergoing a sweeping transition from informal, implicit rules to formal, explicit ones. Institutions long closed to public scrutiny are becoming more accountable. In politics this is seen in the way that the Democratic Party of Japan last year overturned more than 50 years of rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, and now hopes to neuter the bureaucracy. In business it is visible in new rules requiring that public companies have independent directors and disclose executive pay over ¥100m (around $1m).

Similarly, the gambling scandal is ultimately about professionalising and modernising the JSA, which has long resisted reform. The public is fed up with its closed culture, hypocrisy and apparent tolerance of wrongdoing. It was only in 2008 that two outside directors were brought in by the government, following the death of the recruit. Now, the JSA's chairman, Musashigawa, is expected to be suspended. One of those outside directors—a former prosecutor—is tipped to take his place as acting chairman. The symbolism of that, says a ministry official, is not accidental.